Welcome to Prudent Picks

It seems that I rarely have a space of several hours, alone, when things are quiet, to just write and think…. Our small home is full; my husband and I have 5 children, they often have friends over and our family dog Daisy. There is never a dull moment on the Cone Family Farm.

I guess I should start by explaining the name “Prudent Picks.” Prudent Picks has been many things over the years…originally I used the name when I was an independent sales representative. I represented companies that were made in the U.S.A. or were environmentally friendly, thus being Prudent Picks. Later, I used the name when I had a booth in a local antique store. My shelves were filled with finds that I deemed to be Prudent Picks. And now, well now I feel that it has become a part of who I am. I think I spend a lot of time talking about choices with both my family and my friends. I am constantly thinking about choices that include: what to buy, what to cook, what to grow, what to save and how to raise our children. 

When I look back over the choices I have made in life, I can pinpoint that one moment, that one choice that changed everything! The tipping point in my life was in December of 1990. I had come home from college and gone out to dinner with a “guy” I had dated in high school. We had only dated briefly our junior year and then he dated a friend of mine our senior year. I was surprised when he began calling me during the fall of my freshman year of college. So during Christmas, we went on this “date” and on the way home we stopped at the airport to sit and watch the planes taking off and landing. We sat and talked, and then he told me that I was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. I made a choice in that moment… I told him I wanted to date someone else. 

Fast forward to 2013 after all these years, children and difficult divorces….I went on a date with this same “guy”, who took me back to that same airport and asked me if I would change my mind. And… I said, “Yes!” Many years of pain and heartache could have been so different if back in 1990, I had made a different choice. We have five perfect children and I would never change a thing about a single one of them. I look at them, and I see why I had to say no back then.

Now however, I think a little longer and I evaluate a little more thoroughly when making a choice. Sometimes, I drive my husband crazy. I realize that often there is not a right or a wrong choice; there is only a best choice, for this moment, for this situation.

So join me as we build our family, and move back to my husband’s family farm. I know I will make mistakes but I also know that we will learn and grow…together.